US open: Stocks edge higher as peace‑deal hopes, strong earnings lift sentiment

(Sharecast News) - Major indices were in the green early on Thursday following yesterday's record closes for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.

As of 1515 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.23% at 48,576.60, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.17% to 7,035.18 and the Nasdaq Composite came out of the gate 0.05% firmer at 24,028.95.

The Dow opened 112.88 points higher on Thursday, more than reversing losses recorded in the previous session.

Stocks looked set to continue their recent rally on Thursday as hopes for a potential peace deal between Washington and Tehran continued to build after Donald Trump said the Iran war was "very close to over", claiming the Middle Eastern nation wanted to "make a deal very badly".

A White House official told CNBC that a second round of negotiations was under discussion, though nothing had yet been formally scheduled, with improving sentiment helping the S&P 500 erase all of its losses since the start of the conflict earlier in the week.

In the corporate space, food and beverage giant PepsiCo delivered betterthanexpected firstquarter revenue and earnings on Thursday, with price cuts across key snack brands helping its North American food division return to volume growth for the first time in more than two years.

As far as bank earnings were concerned, US Bancorp posted a 13.6% jump in Q1 profits, driven by improved interest income and fee revenues, while Bank of New York Mellon said total revenues had risen 13% year-on-year in the three months ended 31 March to a record $5.41bn.

Still to come, streaming giant Netflix will publish its Q1 numbers after the close.

On the macro front, US initial jobless claims fell sharply last week, according to the Department of Labor, dropping to 207,000 in the week ended 11 April from a downwardly revised 218,000 the week before. That figure was well below expectations for 215,000 and marked the largest weekly decline since February, suggesting layoffs remain limited as the labour market continues to show resilience. The fourweek moving average, which aims to smooth out week-to-week volatility, edged up slightly to 209,750 from a revised 209,250, while continuing claims rose to 1.81m in the week ended 4 April, an increase of 31,000 from the previous week's revised level.

Elsewhere, manufacturing conditions in the Philadelphia region strengthened sharply in April, with the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's manufacturing index rising to 26.7 from 18.1 in March - its highest reading since January 2025 and well above expectations for a drop to 10. Shipments increased by 12 points to 34, while new orders jumped 24 points to 33. The employment index weakened, slipping six points to 5.1, while price pressures continued to build, with both the prices paid and prices received indexes rising for a second month and reaching their highest levels since August. The prices paid index climbed 15 points to 59.3, while prices received rose 12 points to 33.5.

Finally, US capacity utilisation decreased to 75.70% in March, down from 76.10% in February, according to the Federal Reserve, while industrial production dropped 0.5%, missing expectations for a 0.1% uptick following February's 0.7% increase to marks the biggest fall in industrial activity since September 2024.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com